Are beet juice added as vegan?

"Beet juice added as" is an ingredient label phrase referring to juice extracted from red beets, typically followed by a functional purpose such as "color" or "a coloring agent." It indicates that beet juice has been included in a product to provide a natural red, pink, or purple tint rather than for flavor. Beet juice comes from the edible taproot of the beet plant, Beta vulgaris. It is produced by washing and crushing raw beets, mechanically pressing them to extract the liquid, and then filtering and concentrating the resulting juice.

This ingredient is found in a wide variety of commercial foods, including plant-based meat alternatives, candies, fruit snacks, yogurts, baked goods, and beverages. The verdict is vegan because it is derived entirely from a plant source. Neither the raw agricultural material nor the standard mechanical pressing and thermal concentration processes involve animal byproducts or animal-derived processing aids.